Efficient Methodology

Use an Experienced Implementation Services Team for your Dynamics implementation!

Modern software solutions are easier to understand and use than they older generations. Current technology empowers user with a lot of tools and means to see and manipulate data efficiently.

However, an enterprise system is more than just a simple tool for some users. It’s the foundation for the day-to-day operations and the collaborative management of the company’s resources.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision) is a complete ERP package, but in the same time it is an open platform providing tools and ways to design and develop new functionality or change the existing ones. The ability to map it on different business needs using the standard application or designing changes means also that the same problem or business case may be implemented in different ways.

Therefore, the deep knowledge of he product and the experience in implementing it in similar companies are crucial in a successful implementation.
Our main objectives when defining how we’ll work in a project are to:

Eliminate confusion

Improve collaboration

Efficiently manage people’s time dedicated to project activities

Drive outcomes predictability and customer satisfaction.

Here is what we’ll need to do in a project to ensure that at the end you will receive a a solution that will fit into your organization and deliver the value you expect from your investment.

Diagnostic

Client’s Organization Processes Diagnostic

Processes diagnostic is an activity deployed before taking the final decision regarding the new system’s implementation. Its objectives are:

To establish the high level requirements for the future software solution

To identify operational requirements regarding a new system

To identify hardware or infrastructure needs to support a new software solution

To allow the customer have an overview on the solution’s capacity to meet his organization’s requirements, expectations and objectives

To reduce the risks and uncertainty related to the implementation process

To lead to a more objective implementation plan, defining more precisely the project’s scope, required resources, phases, duration, costs and risks involved

To offer a better understanding of the organization’s problems and processes needing improvement or increased IT support, and thus allowing a more appropriate definition of the project’s objectives and expected benefits

To prepare the change in Client’s organization induced by the new system’s implementation, allowing users to be involved in the process as early as possible.

The final diagnostic report will contain:

Main processes high level description

Identified pains and possible solutions

Project’s scope definition

Comparison of possible solutions or approaches, including the way they respond to the identified pains

The diagnostic is an optional phase, suggested mainly in companies with a complex business. In case the diagnostic is not required prior to the implementation decision, the activities included in this phase will be part of the analysis phase.

The diagnostic is deployed by experienced implementation consultants, who conduct 1-3 days workshops sessions with key users (most often Client’s company management)

Requirements Analysis

Requirements Analysis

Using specialized consultants to perform the implementation is mandatory to assure a proper implementation and maximize the benefits brought by a comprehensive ERP solution like Dynamics NAV (Navision). Therefore, we suggest to use a skilled team and proven implementation practices. In short, the implementation process will include the following main phases:

Detailed requirements analysis

Solution design

System setup

The detailed requirements analysis is mandatory to describe precisely and exhaustively the business process the new system should support. It also describes the required customizations, interfaces and the data conversion needs.
If a system diagnostic was conducted prior to the analysis, than this phase extends diagnostics’ findings to all the aspects within the project scope, not only the major ones, which were mainly described in the previous phase.

The detailed description of the business processes is followed by the mapping of those processes with the application’s functions. This occurs through workshop sessions where the client can see how the solutions proposed to his needs and can validate these solutions.
The main deliveries of this phase are the Functional Requirements Document (FRD) and the Gap-Fit analysis document.

The Client should study and accept formally these documents before going to next steps.

The main activities during the analysis phase are:

Project preparation and planning

Team project preparation

Demo version installation for the key users

Technical team preparation

Data collection (from previous system) for the new system’s initialization

Interviews and workshops

Questionnaires fill-in

Functional requirements documentation

Functional requirements validation

Project plan review and next phases preparation.

Deliverables:

Project Quality Plan

Functional Requirements Document (including gap-fit analysis)

Reviewed project plan

Followong the analysis we launch the Design phase where we design and validate with you the implementation solutions for your requirements. The design will be described in an Enterprise Design Document – EDD.

The main actions during this phase are:

Client’s and Supplier’s team joint application design sessions

Templates definition for reports and user interfaces (where different from the standard product)

Now the development team can start working on customizations and the consultants can proceed to system configuration as decided.

Implementation

Implementation Services

The Implementation phase includes configurations setup and software customizations, as described in the previous phases.
If there are software developments or customizations to produce, these will be built and incrementally added to create the final system. During this phase, the configured and customized system is installed on Client’s platform.

The main actions are:

NAV installation and configuration on Client’s site

Developments build and testing on Supplier’s platform

Developments installations on Client’s platform

Data conversion programs testing

Interfaces with other systems testing (if interfaces were included in the implementation)

Overall system test

Deliverables

System installed and operational on Client’s platform

Parameters setup document

Going Live

Once tested and confirmed that it’s conform to agreed requirements, the system is now almost ready to go to production. There is one more step to go, which is loading data from the previous applications. At a minimum, the new database should include the chart of accounts, customers and suppliers data, items and item categories, dimensions (like cost centers, customer groups, item groups, brands, regions etc.), price lists, fixed assets, open documents, opening account balances and opening item inventory.

Data files preparation is customer’s responsibility, but we’ll work together with you to load the prepared data files in the new database.